'The German's tale' - German history, english drama and the politics of adaptation

This thesis investigates the adaptation history of Harriet Lee's novella 'Kruitzner, or The German's Tale' (1801). Published in The Canterbury Tales, a collection of novellas by Harriet Lee and her sister Sophia, 'Kruitzner' is now largely remembered as the source of Byron's tragedy Werner (1822) . However, in addition to Werner, the story was incarnated as a closet drama (1802) by Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, in collaboration with her sister Harriet, Countess of Bessbororough; a stage play by Lee herself (1825), and a stage adaptation of Werner by William Charles Macready (1830).